


Empire Coffee Co.

by whatanauthorsgottado (LvanAm)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Gen, but again later, like he's in love with the manager, not the usual coffee shop au i guess?, romance later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-31
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-12 05:12:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7921837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LvanAm/pseuds/whatanauthorsgottado
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anubin Kallig needed a job. Working at a coffee shop wasn't his idea of a perfect career, but he supposed it was interesting enough to work. And who knew? Maybe it would surprise him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hiring

Anubin sighed and looked down at his resume. The white paper glared back up at him in the light reflecting off the coffee shop window beside him as though it was accusing him of something. Inadequacy, probably, judging by the number of places he’d applied at that hadn’t called him back.

He sighed, plucking up his courage and standing up straighter, and walked in. He’d already applied at Empire Coffee Co., but based on hearsay about their management from others who’d worked there, it couldn’t hurt to apply at a different store. Plus, this one had a “Help Wanted” sign in the window, which gave it a one-up over the other location.

He approached the counter and joined the line – it wouldn’t do to irritate his hopefully-future coworkers by acting overconfident and entitled, and by making other customers mad.

When it was his turn, he approached the counter confidently.

“Welcome to Empire Coffee! How can I help you, dear?” the barista, a blonde woman in her mid-thirties, asked with a smile.

“I was hoping to apply for a job, actually. Who should I speak to?”

She smiled as though she was laughing at some inside joke. “You’ll want to speak to me, actually. I’ll get you an application – and would you like something to drink while you fill it out?”

“A tea, please. Two cream, one sugar.”

She nodded towards the bar stools nearby. “Take a seat at the counter and I’ll bring those out to you.” She disappeared into the back and Anubin took the last empty stool. While he waited, he spun to look at the rest of the store.

The walls were dark wood, matching the tables and chairs. The floor was gleaming black tile, which might have made the room smaller if not for the bright lights and the wide front windows unblocked by curtains or blinds. The room had a rather comfortable, if cool, atmosphere. The comfort was enhanced by the comfortable-looking armchairs in one corner, surrounding a dark brick fireplace. The fireplace wasn’t lit, of course, given the summer heat outside, but it likely burned all day in the winter.

Suddenly, the blonde woman returned, holding a clipboard with pen attached and a black mug with the company’s logo emblazoned in red on the side. Anubin took them from her with a word of thanks.

“Not a problem, dear. If you need anything, my name is Zash, you can just ask for me.”

“Thank you.”

The application was pretty standard, and he finished it quickly. He downed his tea, ignoring the scalding heat on his tongue, and indicated to Zash that he was finished. She came over and took the clipboard and mug from him with another smile.

“Thank you for the opportunity – and the tea. How much do I owe you?”

“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “I’m sure I’ll see you again soon.” With that rather cryptic remark, she returned to waiting on customers.

Anubin stared after her, vaguely disturbed for reasons unknown. With a shrug, he left and headed to the bus stop to return home.

 

Two days later, he received a phone call. “Hello?”

“Hello! Is this Anubin Kallig?”

“Speaking. May I ask who’s calling?”

“It’s Zash from Empire Coffee, dear. You’ve been chosen for a job interview!”

“That’s fantastic. When should I be there?”

She gave him the time and date and signed off with a vague word of luck. Shaking off the odd feeling he got when he spoke to her – really, she was just _too_ cheerful – he went to go prepare an outfit for the interview.

The next day, he showed up at Empire Coffee fifteen minutes exactly before his interview was scheduled to start. Zash gave him another tea and sat with him for a moment.

“Are you nervous at all?”

“Not really. I’m certain of some answers I can give. The only wild card is what questions the interviewer will ask.”

“Well, I’ll be sure to make them easy ones, then,” Zash said with a wink as she stood. “Come along, it’s almost time for your interview.”

He followed her into the back, a little uncertain now. She was the manager? Working the counter? Or was she just in charge of hiring? Either way, she was some kind of upper management.

He followed her to an office in the back, where a man was already waiting. The room had the air of a school principal’s office, and the man seemed not entirely unlike a school principal – though one from a nightmare, with a long face and sharp cheekbones giving him a permanent sneer, and apparently, a habit of looking down his nose, from the way he greeted Anubin.

“Sit,” he said. “Anubin Kallig. What was your last job? How did you like it there?”

“My last job was as a clerk in a clothing store,” Anubin replied, not at all unbalanced by the lack of introductions. “It was a good job, but it wasn’t challenging enough.”

The man fired off several more questions, all fairly standard ones that Anubin had no trouble answering. At the end, Anubin held out his hand for a handshake – which was ignored – and left the room with thanks for the opportunity.

Just after he left the room, he couldn’t help but overhear the two managers talking.

“I don’t think he’s suitable. An immigrant… ridiculous to think of it.”

“I have a good feeling about him. Give…a chance.”

“You and your feelings…. Consider it.”

Anubin rolled his eyes at the remark against his background and left.

 

The next day, he received another phone call from Zash.  “You’ve got the job!”

“That’s fantastic news. When do I start?”

“Tomorrow, bright and early. Be here at seven.”

“I will. Thank you.”

 

The next day, he arrived at Empire Coffee and was taken to the back where a group of new hires was arranged around a man with dark hair. He sneered at Anubin as he came in.

“Now that the last of our class has arrived, we can finally begin. I’m Harkun, and I am to oversee all of your training. I have the full authority of the manager to fire any one of you if I see fit, so best keep that in mind. Now, your first training exercise is there on the computers, so get to it.”

Anubin took a seat next to a rather pretty girl. “Hello, I’m Anubin.”

“Kory. And don’t worry about him.” She indicated Harkun. “It’ll be alright, we’ll manage. I’ve heard he’s a miserable old bastard, so just keep your head down.”

“Thanks. Reassurance like that means a lot coming from such a beautiful girl.”

She giggled a little. “I appreciate it.”

“Enough chatter! Get to it!”

Kory and Anubin both rolled their eyes and started on their training exercises.

When training was over for the day, Harkun called them back to debrief. “Kory.”

“Yes, sir?”

“You don’t have a single customer service bone in your body, do you?” he sneered. “Your scores in the training exercise were so miserable I couldn’t believe it. You’d never make it at Empire Coffee. You are fired.”

The girl gaped for a second, then straightened, her lips forming a thin line, and walked out of the room, dignity intact. Anubin watched her go with some regret. He’d liked her quite a bit.

“You’re all dismissed for the day. Be back here at seven tomorrow morning.”

Anubin returned home and collapsed into bed, more tired than he’d expected from training. They hadn’t even started on making coffee yet…


	2. Training

Training was rough.

Harkun was a tough instructor, demanding nothing less than the best effort from his trainees. Anubin had his fair share of verbal abuse hurled at him.

Oddly enough, Harkun seemed to have a soft spot for one boy called Ffon. Anubin couldn’t help but wonder what it was about Ffon that drew Harkun. Sure, he was pretty smart, and not too bad at keeping up the cheerful attitude they all needed behind the counter, but Harkun took his praise to the next level, and a few times he even stooped to giving Ffon advice on how to complete the training exercises.

_If he dislikes the rest of us so much, why doesn’t he just fire us and be done with it_? Certainly Harkun had taken great advantage of his firing privileges, firing at least one trainee every day. Anubin had nearly been one of them, but his skill in ignoring bullying had helped.

They were working the counter that day, learning hands-on how to use the coffee machines and other things behind the counter. Anubin worked with two other trainees, brothers, who Harkun had been particularly hard on the day before.

Oddly enough, the boys kept disrupting Anubin while he was trying to work, jostling him as they passed and bothering him with inane questions while he was trying to focus. When Anubin confronted them on their shared lunch break, neither boy met his eyes.

“Well, you see… Harkun told us that if we got you to slip up enough, we could keep this job,” the older boy told him.

“We really need this job, see… Our mom doesn’t want us to be lazing around the house anymore, so we had to go and get a job.”

“That’s all well and good, but I need this job to survive, so… Sorry.”

The boys stopped harassing him when they saw that he wouldn’t be shaken. Sure enough, they were fired that very night.

The day after that, Zash popped in. “And how are our new trainees doing?”

“Very well, Zash. Ffon especially has shown great skill both on the counter and in the training exercises.”

“Is that so.” She went over to Harkun’s computer and took a look – presumably at the scores of their exercises. Her eyebrows rose at the sight. “Quite impressive!” A look of mischief crossed her face, and she winked at Anubin. “In that case, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind showing me right now how good he is at serving? We’re very busy up front, you see. Maybe we could even use two trainees.”

“Of course. Ffon, and… You.” He pointed directly at Anubin. “You’ll go up and work with Zash on the front counter. Don’t disappoint me.”

Anubin obediently followed Zash and Ffon to the front, where – she was correct – there was an absolute flood of customers, lined up all the way onto the street.

Anubin got to work immediately, manning the frozen drinks machine. At one point, the machine looked like it was about to break down, but he remembered the noises from one of the training exercises and immediately stepped back from the machine, giving it a moment to cool down. In the meantime, he helped a co-worker with an iced tea, passing her some ice and the tea pitcher.

Once the rush was over and the line calmed to its usual level, Zash called him and Ffon to follow her back to the back. They returned to the training room with her.

“They both handled themselves quite well out there,” Zash announced. “However…”

She rounded on Ffon, much to the man’s surprise. “You had help in the training exercises, didn’t you?”

“I – No, I did them perfectly well on my own.”

“Is that so? Then why did you freeze up when the coffeemaker’s hot plate turned off? I caught it, but you would have been content to stand there while the coffee got cold! You need to be able to react to emergencies! Anubin, on the other hand, reacted very well when the iced drinks machine nearly broke down: he stopped using it and helped another co-worker until it was alright to use again. Well done, by the way,” she added, and he smiled.

“And you!” She rounded on Harkun. “You helped him all through the training, didn’t you! You’ve done this before, and it didn’t help the trainees then, either! I’ve had more than enough of you, Harkun, and if Thanaton didn’t like you so much, I’d fire you myself! As it is… Ffon, you are fired. Collect your things and leave.”

The room was silent. Ffon flushed a bright, angry red, glared at first Zash, then Harkun, then Anubin – saving the most poisonous glare for last – then picked up his bag and left the room. Immediately after he did so, Zash brightened to her usual cheeriness.

“Well! Now that that’s over and done with, congratulations! You are all now members of the Empire Coffee Co. ranks! You start properly tomorrow morning, so be here bright and early!”

Anubin watched her with confusion as she clapped her hands together and left the room. He still hadn’t puzzled Zash out. She was an odd piece of work, that was certain.


End file.
